Michael Breus, PhD

Michael Breus, PhD's Blog

Dreaming is a fundamental, seemingly timeless part of the human experience. For many thousands of years, humans have contemplated, theorized about, and given meaning to dreams. Ancient cultures paid great attention to dreams. Among diverse ancient cultures,...Full Post

Snoring doesn’t just interfere with the snorer’s sleep. When it comes to couples, one person’s snoring often means sleep trouble for two. And it isn’t only sleep that can suffer. Snoring can put great strain on relationships. A snoring problem often creates...Full Post

The past decade or so has seen the development a worrisome trend in fertility studies—evidence that suggests the possibility of broad declines in male sperm quality. In particular, a French study released in 2012 found significant declines in sperm quality...Full Post

How much thought do you give to your dreaming life? We all wake and occasionally wonder why we dreamt a particular set of circumstances—let’s face it, sometimes dreams can seem strange in the light of the waking day. And for all of us at some point, a bad dream...Full Post

Do you have a snorer in your life? Most of us do. Maybe you have a parent or a sibling who is known in the family for their snoring. Perhaps your partner snores. Maybe the snorer in your life is you. Snoring is one of the most common sleep problems, and can...Full Post

Insomnia can be a frustrating cycle of sleeplessness to break. For many people, insomnia leads not only to daytime fatigue, sleepiness, and irritability, but also to anxiety about sleep itself. Feeling stress about one’s ability to sleep can make falling asleep...Full Post

Scientists studying relationships between different types of cells have encountered some new and potentially important information about how—and when—cancerous tumors grow most aggressively. According to a new study, cancerous tumors may grow faster at night,...Full Post

Eight hours. That’s the nightly sleep recommendation you hear most frequently, the gold standard for a healthy sleep routine. But what if it isn’t? I read this article in the Wall Street Journal with great interest, for it points to recent research that suggests...Full Post

Strong and healthy circadian function is vital to good sleep and to overall good health. Circadian rhythms have a significant influence over sleep, working in concert with the body’s internal sleep drive to regulate periods of both rest and alertness. Circadian dysfunction...Full Post

Do without sleep now, and make up for it later. It’s a pretty common sleep strategy for adults with busy lives and demanding schedules that crowd out sufficient time for sleep on a daily basis. We’ve seen evidence in recent years that this strategy— of running up a sleep...Full Post